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The Fed said it will continue its policy of keeping interest rates low in hope of spurring on the economy and lowering the unemployment rate.

Attention has now quickly turned to what the Fed may do at its next meeting in September when there will be a new round of data for the central bank to sift through and decide if the economy is in the midst of growing pains or decidedly heading south.

A key piece of that puzzle will be released on Friday when the Labor Department announces the July jobs figure.

With Congress in gridlock, the Fed is the last man standing for those seeking federal economic action.

Democrats pressed the chairman for action in run-up to this week’s meeting, arguing the Fed should try to jump-start the economy amid anemic growth and persistent unemployment.

“The Fed is the only game in town,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke at a July 17 Congressional hearing. “So get to work, Mr. Chairman.”

Republicans, meanwhile, have urged Bernanke to rule out further action, arguing that his central bank can no longer move the economic needle, and that further attempts to stimulate it are just setting up the country for future inflation.

Similar political positioning is likely to occur in advance of the September gathering of the Fed’s policy making committee.

Some Fed watchers thought a recent rash bad economic news would drive Bernanke and other officials to act following Wednesday’s meeting. Unemployment remains above 8 percent following consecutive disappointing monthly job reports in May and June, and the Commerce Department last week said economic growth slowed in the second quarter of 2012.

But analysts on Wednesday said the Fed showed it is still waiting for more data before it takes dramatic steps.

“I think that Ben Bernanke would want to see a meaningful decline in economic activity to the point where we were threatened with another recession before we would see” another round of bond buying aimed at prodding banks to lend, said Benjamin Pace, US Chief Investment Officer, Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management.

Pace said Bernanke will likely watch the July and August jobs reports, and that if job creation stays in the range of 75,000 for both months, the chairman could be spurred into action.

The Labor Department last month reported 80,000 new jobs had been created in June.

Bernanke is unlikely to wait too long to make moves after the August jobs report is released, lest his bank take action too close to the November election and be accused of political meddling, Pace said.

The Fed’s acknowledgement in its statement of the slowing economic growth means the central bank is likely closer to taking action, said Mark Bitner, managing director and senior economist at Wells Fargo.

Pace said, however, it’s unclear how much the Fed can do to aid the recovery.

“There’s only so much monetary policy can do, and we’re coming up to that limit,” Pace said. “I think that’s another reason why the Fed is hesitant to shoot its last couple of arrows — perhaps its last arrow.”

For several months, Washington has been watching the Fed to see if it will embark on a third round of “quantitative easing” — a series of asset purchases intended to further lower interest rates and encourage economic growth.

The Fed has tried the strategy twice before — in 2008 and 2010 — but economists continue to debate how effective the strategy has been in creating economic growth.

The option remains on the table for September’s meeting.

Even if the Fed decides to act, economists remain split on the central banks ability to jumpstart the recovery having already dipped into its arsenal several times.

Brian Jacobsen, chief portfolio strategist for Wells Fargo Advantage Funds, said that while action from the Fed might produce a speculation-driven spike in the stock market, it would not produce new economic growth.

“Investors in general have something of a misunderstanding of how the Fed impacts the economy,” Jacobsen said.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed slightly down on Wednesday following the Fed’s announcement.

Some see the Fed as having power to make a modest but much-needed difference and should therefore do whatever it can and soon.

“The Fed has the power to stimulate the economy,” said University of Pennsylvania Economist Justin Wolfers. “Perhaps that power is somewhat limited, but it can certainly do more than it is currently doing.”